Conventional cushion materials include thermoformed sealed laminate articles such as Bubble Wrap® cushioning material. However, it is also known to prepare laminated inflatable articles which can be shipped to a packer uninflated, and inflated immediately before use. Such inflatable articles are typically made from two heat sealable films which are fused together in discrete areas to form one or more inflatable chambers.
Conventional methods of making cushion material, such as Bubble Wrap® cushioning material, use a vacuum source to deform polymer film to form bubbles or pockets that can be filled with air (or other gases) to form bubbles. Such products can be made using a heated drum having recesses that are connected to a vacuum source. When vacuum is applied, each of various regions of the heated film in contact with the drum is drawn into a recesses on the drum. The heated film is deformed and thinned in the regions drawn into the recess by the vacuum process. One side of the resulting film remains “flat”, while the other side is not flat, but rather is “thermoformed”. A second film, which preferably is a flat film, i.e., not thermoformed, is fused to the “flat side” of the formed film, resulting in a plurality of sealed, air-filled “bubbles.”
Conventional cushion fabricating processes also include a first stage film fabrication step and a separate second stage fusing step. In the first stage, polymer films are fabricated by conventional techniques known to those in the art of polymer film fabrication. In the second stage, the polymer films are combined according to heat sealing methods that are known to those in the art of polymer film sealing techniques.
Two-stage manufacturing processes are undesirable because of the added cost and inefficiency associated with the process. During two stage processes, films are fabricated and wound onto rolls at one location, and unwound and combined with a second film to make a cushioning material at a second location. The processes are inefficient in that they include winding and unwinding of rolls of film, together with inventorying and transporting, as well as other inefficiencies associated with two-stage processes.